[Note: this webpage last modified Friday, 04-Feb-2011 19:44:51 EST]
This is the website for CS 620 Advanced Theory of Computation offered in the fall of 2010 and taught by Jeff Kinne. The registrar's information about our section of the course is here. You can get the key information about this course by clicking on the links on the left of this webpage.
Special Note: The way we are enforcing the prerequisite for this course has been amended. Please see the explanation to verify that you are signed up for the right course. You may need to sign up for CS 520 instead before taking CS 620.
All course announcements will be emailed to you using blackboard. I will also duplicate important announcements here.
September 10: A good reference for background material (like proofs, big-O, etc.) are some of the opencourseware courses from MIT, for example this one, this one, this one, this one, this one.
September 9: I will from now on collect notes about common mistakes made in the homeworks after I grade them. I will link this off of the Assignments page.
September 3: The 4th problem from the second homework has been removed - you do not need to do it. The homework 2 webpage has been updated to reflect this.
A number of people have had confusion about proofs. I will start collecting hints and tips on the Basic Proofs Tips page.
In blackboard, you can see what letter grade you would get if the semester ended today under total (I think - let me know if not). I expect these to improve as the semester goes on, but that will only happen if you put in the effort/time.
September 2: Correction to the model solution for problem 2, part b. The running time is O(n2 * 2n), not 2O(n2).
August 30: Some students seem to be unfamiliar with big-O algorithm runtime analysis, proof by induction, and other material I thought you might already know. Here is a link to some notes on a course taught by someone that review some of this information: http://www.eng.unt.edu/ian/books/free/lnoa.pdf. You can also look at the wikipedia pages for analysis of algorithms, big-O notation, and time complexity. Here are some more notes on big-O including a link to a PDF at the end that has a big-O proof that uses induction: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~plank/plank/classes/cs140/Notes/BigO/. And here is another lecture notes that discusses big-O and has a proof by induction: http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~cs251/OldCourses/1997/topic3/. These were all from a quick search on google. I suggest searching for things like "big O algorithm analysis", "big O problems", "proof by induction examples", etc.
August 27: Some students asked about problem 1b of homework 1, so I am sharing with everyone the clarification. Problem 1b speaks of "exponentially bounded" functions. In this course, "exponentially bounded" means less than 2nc for some constant c.
Note that there are functions that are /not/ exponentially bounded - they are "bigger than just exponential". In particular, something of the form 22n is /not/ less than 2nc for any constant c. Something of the form 22n we will call "doubly exponential".
This use of the term "exponentially bounded" may be different than what you have used before, but this is what it means in the field of theory of computing, and this is the meaning we use in this course.
I will continue to post any clarifications that I feel are important to the whole class as they come up.
August 24: A draft of the required text is available at http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~oded/cc-book.html. The section numbers and text are mostly the same in the draft as in the final version, so you can use the draft to perform the required reading if your copy of the text has not yet arrived.
August 20: The entrance exam will be given during the first lecture, Wednesday August 25 at 3pm in A009 Root Hall. You may stay after the class time to finish the exam if you wish.
August 20: I have been informed by the library that they will not place the required text on reserve because that may discourage you from buying the text.
August 16: This webpage contains information about this course. Please read it!